


Stress Fracture

by aintweproudriff



Category: Newsies (1992), Newsies - All Media Types, Newsies!: the Musical - Fierstein/Menken
Genre: Anxiety, David is Stressed, David's got a good support system, I project a whole lot, M/M, Poor Self Care, The Jacobs family is the bomb and Jack is good too
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-05
Updated: 2017-12-07
Packaged: 2019-02-10 20:25:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,821
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12919608
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aintweproudriff/pseuds/aintweproudriff
Summary: David has a breakdown because of school. Luckily, his siblings and boyfriend are good helpers.Prompt: Javid Anxiety Attack





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Davey in a man bun thank you for coming to my Ted Talk

David couldn’t possibly blame anyone else for what had happened that day. He wished he could blame his teachers, his mom, his dad, Les, or even himself. But instead it was just the words on his screen, his deadlines and due dates and tests and work. All of those were inanimate objects that, honestly, didn’t deserve to be punished for his own brain. It wasn’t his teacher’s fault for assigning things, and it wasn’t his boss’s fault for scheduling him at the worst time, and it wasn’t his family’s fault that they wanted to hang out with him. Actually, that was kind of sweet, almost a comforting break from all the stress. It would have been, at least, if he hadn’t felt like every time he took a break he was being selfish. He had things to be doing. 

“Davey?” he heard a small, quiet voice call through his door. “It’s like, 7:00. Are you gonna eat today?”

He put his chin to his chest and ran his hand through his hair, only to be stopped by a knot. He’d pulled his hair up hours ago, trying to keep himself from pulling on his hair. Davey angrily pulled the hair tie out, sighing at the way his hair flew in all directions. Standing up, he looked at his phone for the first time in hours. Yeah, it was past seven. 

“Les,” he opened the door, trying to make his voice weary but kind. “I was working, man.”

“I know,” Les shuffled his feet, “but Sarah told me I had to come and tell you to eat. She said I’d get pie if you came down, so you have to come eat something.”

When was the last time he’d eaten? David couldn’t quite remember, and his stomach growled as if to tell him that it had been too long. 

“Okay, okay. Let’s get you your pie,” Davey messed up his brother’s hair, and Les, grinning, fixed it back. 

“Thank the lord!” he heard Sarah shout from downstairs, followed by the clatter of dishes. He shook his head, but smiled at the smell of baking bread. Sarah had made rolls, soup, and vegetables. Obediently, David sat down. 

“We ate an hour ago,” she placed a plate in front of him, “but we didn’t want to disturb you.”

“Yeah,” he blew on the soup. “You did a really good job of that.”

She turned around to keep scrubbing a pot. “We were gonna just wait until you came down on your own. So I waited, and waited, and eventually we had to eat without you. And then I waited another hour, and you hadn’t eaten since breakfast. And I know for a fact that you only ate like, a piece of toast this morning.”

“I’ve had more since then!”

“You took coffee breaks,” she deadpanned, making him silent. “That doesn’t count as food.” 

Davey began to eat his food, and the more he ate the more he wanted to shovel down his food. He was almost halfway done with the bowl of soup by the time Sarah was done cleaning. 

“So what’s got you so busy?” she turned around, drying her hands on a rag. 

“What doesn’t have me busy?” he swallowed a big bite. “Why am I taking four AP classes this semester, again?”

“Because you like to challenge yourself, and you like not having to pay for college,” Les piped up from the next room. 

Sarah pointed in the direction of her little brother’s voice. “That’s why.”

David pushed noodles around with his spoon. “It was a rhetorical question,” he mumbled through a mouthful of food. 

“What are you working on right now?” Sarah asked, sitting down next to him. 

“This essay on what society is and what it shouldn’t be, and why we should never let it be what it isn’t.”

“How do you define society?” Sarah focused her eyes on Davey’s face. 

“That’s just the issue I’m having. How do you define society?” David stuffed bread in his face. 

Sarah nodded, dusting some crumbs off of the table. “Wow. What else do you have going?”

“I have a French test tomorrow, and then a presentation in French that I’m not ready for at all the next day. We have another paper assigned in English, for which I still have to get my idea approved,” he shook his head. “I totally forgot how do like, do calculus over fall break, so I have to study for my next test.”

David tried really hard to steady his breathing as he listed more and more assignments he had to do. But with each word he said, and each hundred points in the gradebook that he tallied in his head, he felt his heart rate quicken. 

“And then, I mean, that’s not mentioning the finals that are coming up-”

“Davey.” Sarah put her hand on his arm. “Relax,” she smiled. “One thing at a time, right?”

He nodded. “Yeah, yeah. One thing at a time.”

“That’s how we’re gonna do this,” Sarah stood up, grabbing the pie from the fridge. She set it on the countertop, pulled off the lid to the container, and went to the cabinet to pull out the plates. As she did, she hummed a soft song, and Davey found himself recognizing it but not being able to name it. 

“I just, it’s a lot of work, you know? It’s a lot of stuff. And next semester I add another AP class, and then I’m going to have like five AP tests in two weeks, and that sounds like the closest thing to a hell that I believe in.”

Sarah blew air out of her nose sharply, slicing into the pie. She put three slices on three plates, and handed one to Davey, raising her eyebrows as if to tell him he had to eat it. He wouldn’t argue with that. 

They ate in silence until Davey stood up to wash his plate. 

“Don’t worry about the work you have to do right now, okay?” Sarah suggested kindly. “Go get some sleep.”

Davey nodded, putting his dish in the sink and hugging his sister. She pulled away quickly, pointing upstairs. 

His room, although tidy, appeared full of things he could do instead of sleeping. Davey’s favorite option ended up being the same thing that had kept him from sleeping: his essay.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ImNotConfidentWithMyWritingAbility.gif  
> As usual, all experiences with anxiety and panic attacks are my own, and based on how I have felt.

“Jesus, Dave!” Jack exclaimed as Davey walked into the AP Psychology room. “Did you sleep at all last night?”

Davey took a long drink from his coffee cup, praying that the caffeine would help him to give Jack a nice answer. “I did, a little,” he glared. Obviously, that hope was scratched.   
“How much is a little? You look like hell.”

“A couple hours,” Davey shook his cup. Empty. “Two, maybe.”

“Maybe as in you got almost two or…”

“Okay, okay. I got almost one hour of sleep.”

Jack’s eyes bugged out of his head. “You got less than one hour of sleep last night? You, Mr. AP Anatomy and AP Psych, should know that that isn’t good for you!” 

“And me, Mister AP Econ, Gov, and English, has an essay due today and two tests I have to take today,” Davey sat down at his desk. “I can’t afford to spend that valuable time sleeping.”

Jack sat down in the desk next to him, the same exact desk that Jack had eagerly claimed at the beginning of the semester. “Did Sarah actually let you get away with sleeping less than an hour? I would have thought that her mom-ness would have taken over.”

Davey scoffed. “Yeah, well. What she doesn’t know won’t kill her, right?”

“Of course you didn’t tell her,” Jack pulled a notebook from his backpack. Normally, David would have laughed when he saw the ‘Jack + David’ scrawled on the front page of the notebook. Now, he just sighed at it. 

“No,” David shook his head, exhaling sharply. “If I had told her, she would have made me sleep. And if I slept, then this essay wouldn’t be perfect. And if I don’t get an A on this essay, Jack-”

“You’ll still have an A in the class. What’s your grade again? A ninety-seven percent?”

“Ninety-six.”

Jack shook his head. “Okay, man. You’re gonna be alright.”

As the teacher walked in, David replayed Jack’s words over and over in his head. It wasn’t so much the words he’d said, actually, as the way he’d said them. It was probably ridiculous to say that Jack had sounded almost dismissive, or worse - annoyed with the way David was acting. Like David had done something wrong. Maybe, he realized, he had done something wrong. Jack probably was a little angry at how David was acting. Or more than a little angry at how David was acting. Why would Davey do something so stupid, when he was actually smart? After all, a ninety-six percent in an AP English class was no small achievement; he’d gotten As on almost every essay and test they’d taken. So why would David stress about one essay? It wasn’t like it would matter, it wasn’t like it would make a difference.   
There was another reason that Jack might be angry at David. Those hundred percents had always been near effortless; it came naturally to him. Jack had to work overtime just to get a B. Heck, Jack had studied for days for a math test a few years ago. When he’d gotten an eighty-five percent, he’d all but thrown a party. And David didn’t have to work that much, but he still spent hours on hours studying and revising his work. Maybe Jack was upset that David wasn’t spending enough time with him. When was the last time they’d gone on a date? 

The bell rang, shocking David out of his thoughts. He hadn’t taken any notes; he’d have to get them from someone else. That was one more thing to do tonight. 

Davey struggled through his calculus test, turned in his essay, and sat in his place for French. Jack, behind him, tapped him on the shoulder. 

“Are you ready?” he asked, his face pale. 

“I think so, I mean,” he shrugged, “how hard is it supposed to be?”

Jack shook his head. “Apparently, his entire fourth period failed it.”

Davey breathed in slowly. “Seriously?” There was no way he’d studied for a test that was going to be that hard. 

Jack, as well as a couple of other people, nodded. 

“Okay, so I might be a little fucked,” Davey laughed. People around him giggled and started their own conversations about the test, how much they had studied, and if there was going to be a curve. But no one kept talking to Davey, leaving him to be alone with what he thought about the test. French was his worst grade. It was his only B, and he desperately wanted an A. Unfortunately, it looked like that might not happen. 

The teacher passed around the test sheets, which turned out to be five pages and 50 questions long. Davey tried to breathe as he read the first question. One thing at a time, just like Sarah had told him. Only question one looked impossible. Question two looked harder, and as Davey looked over the packet, he was only able to think about how much of it he didn’t understand. He needed to pass this test. He needed this A; if he didn’t get it, what would that do to his GPA? What might that do to his college prospects?

His mind went blank after a few moments of thinking like this. All he could hear anymore was the scratching of pencils on paper and flipping of packets against tapping on desks, all sounds made by people who knew so much more than he did. He stared directly forward, never taking his eyes off of the head of the boy in front of him. 

Jack stood up, taking his test to the teacher’s desk. His eyes caught David’s paper as he walked back to his seat. 

“Davey,” he whispered, close enough to his ear that he could be sure no one would hear him, “are you feeling alright?”

David barely heard him, but found himself trying to nod. Instead, his head moved from left to right, his movements totally independent from his mind. 

“Okay,” Jack whispered. “Let’s get you out of here, yeah?”

Davey nodded, and felt Jack raise his hand. “Sir?” Jack asked. “Can I take David to the nurse’s? He isn’t feeling well.”

The teacher hesitated, then nodded. “Come back, Mr. Kelly,” he said, “when you are sure your friend is safe.”

Jack shook his head slightly at the dismissal of his relationship, but smiled. “I will.”

Davey grabbed his backpack and pulled it over his his shoulder. He could feel every eye on him, each person wondering what could have been wrong. His feet obediently followed Jack’s out the door of the classroom and through the school hallway, paneled with obnoxiously red lockers. 

“Can I hold your hand?” Jack asked softly, and David paused for a second before shaking his head. “Okay, that’s okay,” Jack smiled at him. He pushed open a heavy door, and David followed Jack into the courtyard. 

“If it’s all the same to you, Dave,” Jack shrugged, “I don’t think we should go to the nurse’s office. They’re just gonna send you home, and I’d rather go with you than let you go alone.”

David heard about half of what Jack said, instead focusing on the sound of his heart pumping in his chest, and the blood rushing from his head to his hands and to his feet. The sun was blindingly bright, which was too much for how cold the day was. He heard Jack unlock his car, and felt himself climbing into the passenger seat. As the engine turned over, David was finally able to listen to himself think again. 

“Hey,” Jack rested his right hand on the seat next to Davey’s leg, being sure not to touch his boyfriend, “are you feeling any better?”

Davey nodded. “Yeah, uh, a little bit.”

“He speaks! There’s that voice I love to listen to.”

Davey shook his head, running his hands nervously up and down the soft fabric of the seat. The grooves of the dated fabric felt rough on his fingers, but he was able to use it to calm himself down, to ground himself. Breathing in time to the soft music Jack played, David looked out the window. He’d never really driven away from school at this time of day before; he didn’t like leaving campus during the day. But the buildings flew by, just like they did when he left school tired and ready to go home and do homework. 

“Can I hold your hand?” Jack asked, his fingers twitching. 

In response, Davey slid his hand underneath Jack’s, linking their fingers together. Jack’s fingers stopped fidgeting, and instead began running themselves over Davey’s palm. 

“I’m glad you feel better,” Jack smiled, bopping his head in time with the song. “I don’t like when you feel like shit.”

Davey raised his eyebrows, not looking at Jack. “I don’t like it much either.”

“Pff. You know what I mean.”

“Yeah. I do.”

-

They got back to Davey’s house quickly due to the light traffic. Jack pulled into his usual space in the driveway and turned off his car. 

“Can I stay here with you for a while? I want to make sure you get some sleep.”

Davey looked at Jack, who bounced his keys in his hand, making them clink together. “God I love you,” he muttered, not even totally realizing what he was saying until it was out. Jack smiled, but raised his eyebrows. “Yeah, uh, you can. It might be good to have someone here to help me.”

Jack opened the door, finally dropping Davey’s hand to get out of the car. He grabbed it again as soon as they were inside the house, though. He was obviously sad to let it go again when they had to throw their backpacks down on the couch, so Davey made a point of clasping Jack’s hand tightly the second he was able to again. 

“Go get some sleep, okay?” Jack asked, and kissed David’s cheek gently. 

Davey leaned into Jack’s shoulder, thankful for how Jack braced himself instinctively to handle the extra weight. “Jack,” he mumbled into his boyfriend’s shirt, “do you want to come like, sleep with me?”

David closed his eyes in partial shame as he heard himself. 

“Shit, fuck,” he grumbled. “I’m too tired for this. I mean, like, nap with me.”

He could feel the vibrations of Jack’s laugh. “Yeah, I know what you meant. You’ve had a long day. Let’s go on up, yeah?”

David pulled himself away from Jack and squeezed his hand, sleepily leading the two of them upstairs.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading, I hope you liked it! Once again, please make sure you're doing what Davey doesn't do, and take care of yourself. Don't forget that your health come first and that a bad grade isn't the end of the world! (things i need to tell myself sometimes)

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! Make sure you do what Davey didn't do and get some sleep, drink lot of water, take your meds, and eat something.


End file.
